De Amerikaanse oorlogsstaat blijft in staat van oorlog. Het kan ook niet anders, de Verenigde Staten is moreel en financieel failliet, het kan alleen met wapens concurreren, meer dan de helft van alle Amerikaanse wapenexporten gaat naar landen die volgens het Amerikaanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken niet democratisch zijn. Tegelijkertijd gaat ongeveer de helft van de federale begroting direct of indirect naar wat officieel 'de nationale veiligheid' heet. De Washington Post bericht: 'Ability to Wage 'Long War' Is Key To Pentagon Plan. Conventional Tactics De-Emphasized. The Pentagon, readying for what it calls a "long war," yesterday laid out a new 20-year defense strategy that envisions U.S. troops deployed, often clandestinely, in dozens of countries at once to fight terrorism and other nontraditional threats. Major initiatives include a 15 percent boost in the number of elite U.S. troops known as Special Operations Forces, a near-doubling of the capacity of unmanned aerial drones to gather intelligence, a $1.5 billion investment to counter a biological attack, and the creation of special teams to find, track and defuse nuclear bombs and other catastrophic weapons. China is singled out as having "the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States," and the strategy in response calls for accelerating the fielding of a new Air Force long-range strike force, as well as for building undersea warfare capabilities. The latest top-level reassessment of strategy, or Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), is the first to fully take stock of the starkly expanded missions of the U.S. military -- both in fighting wars abroad and defending the homeland -- since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.' Lees verder: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020301853.html Of http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020406Z.shtml

De Amerikaan John Perkins schrijft in zijn boek 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: 'Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organisations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few weathy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM. I wrote that in 1982, as the beginning of a book with the working title, 'Conscience of an Economic Hit Man. The book was dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been my clients, whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits - Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assasinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We EHMs failed to bring Roldos and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.' Toen ik in de jaren negentig voor de VPRO radio door de wereld reisde kwam ik deze economische hitmen regelmatig tegen, in Oezbekistan, in Mongolie, later in Mauretanie, keurig in het pak gestoken jonge kerels, Amerikanen vaak, maar ook Europeanen onder wie Nederlanders. Ze struinden de pas geopende markten af op zoek naar nieuwe klanten die ze namens banken of grote concerns konden beroven. Nu vindt u deze mensen in Irak en Afghanistan, waar wij militair helpen dit roofbouw-systeem in stand te houden. Natuurlijk wordt deze terreur met allerlei verheven praatjes verkocht, maar ondertussen spreken de feiten voor zich. 'The income ratio of the one-fifth of the world's population in the wealthiest countries to the one-fifth in the poorest went from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1995.' Een van de neoconservatieven die de regering Bush ervan overtuigde dat Irak moest worden bezet, de Amerikaanse voormalige staatssecretaris van Defensie Paul Wolfowitz, is de nieuwe directeur van de Wereldbank geworden. De afgelopen veertig jaar is de kloof tussen arm en rijk in de wereld verdubbeld. Dat zijn de feiten, de rest is politieke propaganda. Maar deze informatie zult u niet van NOVA of van al die andere nieuwsrubrieken vernemen. Ze kijken wel uit. Lees ook: 'President Carter: "We did not need to go into Iraq. We went in there under false pretenses"' Zie: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/01/lkl.02.html Of http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11761.htm

We're transforming our military. The things I look for are the following: morale, retention, and recruitment. And retention is high, recruitment is meeting goals, and people are feeling strong about the mission.-- George W. Bush, in a Jan. 26 press conference.

According to statistics provided to Salon by the office of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, the Army said that 17 percent (21,880 new soldiers) of its 2005 recruits were admitted under waivers. Put another way, more soldiers than are in an entire infantry division entered the Army in 2005 without meeting normal standards. This use of waivers represents a 42 percent increase since the pre-Iraq year of 2000. (All annual figures used in this article are based on the government's fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. So fiscal year 2006 began Oct. 1, 2005.) In fact, even the already high rate of 17 percent underestimates the use of waivers, as the Pentagon combined the Army's figures with the lower ones for reserve forces to dilute the apparent percentage. Equally significant is the Army's currently liberal use of "moral waivers," which are issued to recruits who have committed what are loosely defined as criminal offenses. Officially, the Pentagon states that most waivers issued on moral grounds are for minor infractions like traffic tickets. Yet documents obtained by Salon show that many of the offenses are more serious and include drunken driving and domestic abuse. Last year, 37 percent of the Army's waivers (about 8,000 soldiers) were based on moral grounds. Like waivers as a whole, these waivers are proliferating -- they're 32 percent higher than in the prewar year of 2000. As a result, the odds are going up that the soldiers fighting and taking the casualties in Iraq entered the Army with a criminal record.' Lees verder: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/02/02/waivers/Ofhttp://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020206F.shtmlEn dit criminele systeem wordt direct gesteund door de meerderheid van de Nederlandse volksvertegenwoordigers, nu die meerderheid beslist heeft nog meer militairen naar oorlogsgebied te sturen.

Hitler verklaarde ooit eens dat als een leugen groot genoeg was en vaak genoeg herhaald werd deze uiteindelijk als de waarheid zou worden geaccepteerd. Zo gaat het ook met grote complotten. De officiele versie van de aanslagen van 11 september 2001 is dat een complot van arabische terroristen deze misdaad mogelijk heeft gemaakt. Maar steeds meer mensen in de Verenigde Staten en ook daarbuiten beginnen aan die officiele versie van de werkelijkheid te twijfelen. Sommigen van hen vermoeden zelfs dat er een geheel ander complot hiervoor verantwoordelijk was. Welke complotdenkers hebben gelijk? Als u naar de foto hierboven kijkt, dan ziet u dat het bovenste gedeelte van 1 van de Twin Towers schuin omvalt en toch zakt ineens de hele toren loodrecht ineen. Hoe kan dat? Kijkt u nog eens naar het filmfragment, dan ziet u het nog beter: http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/collapses/shattering.htmlWonderlijk, niet? Misschien nog opmerkelijker is dat een groep vooraanstaande autoriteiten zich nu tegen de officiele versie keren. 'An influential group of prominent experts and scholars have joined together alleging that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11. The members of this new non-partisan association, "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" (S9/11T), are convinced their research proves the current administration has been dishonest with the nation about events in New York and Washington, D.C.These experts contend that books and articles by members and associates have established that the World Trade Center was almost certainly brought down by controlled demolitions and that the available relevant evidence casts grave doubt on the official story about the attack on the Pentagon. They believe that the government not only permitted 9/11 to occur but may even have orchestrated these events to facilitate its political agenda.The society includes U.S. and international faculty and students of history, science, military affairs, psychology, and even philosophy. According to its spokesmen, S9/11T represents a concerted effort to uphold the standards of truth and justice and to strengthen democracy in this nation, which has taken a terrible hit in the aftermath of 9/11, when "everything changed." Its function is to bring scientific rigor to the study of 9/11 phenomena.The members of this group are dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11, "letting the chips fall where they may." The evidence has become sufficiently strong that they are speaking out. They are actively devoting themselves to reporting the results of their research to the public by means of lectures, articles, and other venues.The society includes numerous notable professors and scholars, including:• Morgan Reynolds, Texas A & M Professor Emeritus of Economics, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor for President George W. Bush, and former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis• Steven E. Jones, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University, co-chair of S9/11T and the creator of its home page and its forum• Robert M. Bowman, former Director of the U.S. "Star Wars" Space Defense Program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, a former senior Air Force Colonel with 101 combat missions, who is also a Catholic Archbishop• Lloyd DeMause, Director of The Institute for Psychohistory, President of the International Psychohistorical Association and Editor of The Journal of Psychohistory• James H. Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, author or editor of more than 20 books and co-chair of S9/11T• Andreas Von Buelow, former assistant German defense minister, director of the German Secret Service, minister for research and technology, and member of Parliament for 25 years.' Lees verder: http://prweb.com/releases/2006/1/prweb338782.htmEen interview met 1 van deze autoriteiten, Bob Bowman, voormalig kolonel van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht kunt u hier lezen: http://home.planet.nl/~houck006/bowman.html Of hier beluisteren: http://www.vpro.nl/programma/madiwodo/afleveringen/14609116/ Wat is de waarheid, en wie bepaalt die waarheid? Wie bepaalt wie gelijk heeft en wie niet. U zelf of de commerciele journalistiek die slechts 1 versie van de werkelijkheid geeft? Overigens, hier kunt u een uitgebreide documentaire zien over de ongerijmdheden in de officiele verklaring van de aanslagen op 11 september 2001: https://secure.reopen911.org/freedvd.php

Hoe staat 't er economisch voor met 'the land of the free, home of the brave?' Paul Craig Roberts, staatssecretaris Financien onder Reagan schrijft in Information Clearing House: 'The US has become a rogue nation. The state of the union is disastrous. By its naked aggression, bullying, illegal spying on Americans, and illegal torture and detentions, the Bush administration has demonstrated American contempt for the Geneva Convention, for human life and dignity, and for the civil liberties of its own citizens. Increasingly, the US is isolated in the world, having to resort to bribery and threats to impose its diktats. No country any longer looks to America for moral leadership. The US has become a rogue nation.Least of all did President Bush tell any truth about the economy. He talked about economic growth rates without acknowledging that they result from eating the seed corn and do not produce jobs with a living wage for Americans. He touted a low rate of unemployment and did not admit that the figure is false because it does not count millions of discouraged workers who have dropped out of the work force.Americans did not hear from Bush that a new Wal-Mart just opened on Chicago's city boundary and 25,000 people applied for 325 jobs (Chicago Sun-Times, Jan. 26), or that 11,000 people applied for a few Wal-Mart jobs in Oakland, California. Obviously, employment is far from full.Neither did Bush tell Americans any of the dire facts reported by economist Charles McMillion in the January 19 issue of Manufacturing & Technology News: During Bush's presidency the US has experienced the slowest job creation on record (going back to 1939). During the past five years private business has added only 958,000 net new jobs to the economy, while the government sector has added 1.1 million jobs. Moreover, as many of the jobs are not for a full work week, "the country ended 2005 with fewer private sector hours worked than it had in January 2001."' Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11746.htm

Dit keer is Iran aan de beurt, want de dollar begint te wankelen en de oliewinsten van de Westerse concerns moeten blijven stijgen. 'Exxon Mobil Corp. reported a 27 percent rise in fourth-quarter earnings earlier this week. Shell's full-year earnings rose 37 percent to $25.3 billion while sales rose 12 percent to $379.0 billion. The earnings were the largest ever for a British or Dutch company, but are likely to be passed by Britain's BP PLC next week. Shell's new CEO Jeroen van der Veer tried to emphasize the positive in the results, citing "record cash and earnings" for the full year and "success in exploration and gaining access to new resources."' http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/2006/02/02/ap2495065.html Ondertussen analyseert Mike Whitney in Information Clearing House de ware achtergronden van het conflict met Iran: 'Those who doubt that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld team will attack Iran, while so conspicuously overextended in Iraq, are ignoring the subtleties of the administration’s Middle East strategy. Bush has no intention of occupying Iran. Rather, the goal is to destroy major weapons-sites, destabilize the regime, and occupy a sliver of land on the Iraqi border that contains 90% of Iran’s oil wealth. Ultimately, Washington will aim to replace the Mullahs with American-friendly clients who can police their own people and fabricate the appearance of representative government. But, that will have to wait. For now, the administration must prevent the incipient Iran bourse (oil-exchange) from opening in March and precipitating a global sell-off of the debt-ridden dollar. There have many fine articles written about the proposed “euro-based” bourse and the devastating effects it will have on the greenback. The best of these are “Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar” by William R. Clark, and “The Proposed Oil Bourse” by Krassimir Petrov, Ph.D. The bottom line on the bourse is this; the dollar is underwritten by a national debt that now exceeds $8 trillion dollars and trade deficits that surpass $600 billion per year. That means that the greenback is the greatest swindle in the history of mankind. It’s utterly worthless. The only thing that keeps the dollar afloat is that oil is traded exclusively in greenbacks rather than some other currency. If Iran is able to smash that monopoly by trading in petro-euros then the world’s central banks will dump the greenback overnight, sending markets crashing and the US economy into a downward spiral. The Bush administration has no intention of allowing that to take place. In fact, as the tax-cuts and the budget deficits indicate, the Bush cabal fully intends to perpetuate the system that trades worthless dollars for valuable commodities, labor, and resources. As long as the oil market is married to the dollar, this system of global indentured servitude will continue. Battle Plans. The Bush administration’s attention has shifted to a small province in southwestern Iran that is unknown to most Americans. Never the less, Khuzestan will become the next front in the war on terror and the lynchpin for prevailing in the global resource war. If the Bush administration can sweep into the region (under the pretext disarming Iran’s nuclear weapons programs) and put Iran’s prodigious oil wealth under US control, the dream of monopolizing Middle East oil will have been achieved.' Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11743.htm Een gewelddadig optreden zal de crisis in het Midden Oosten alleen nog maar vergroten. Zouden de socialisten, liberalen en christenen die nog meer militairen naar Afghanistan willen sturen hierbij hebben stilgestaan? Allemaal vragen die we deze volksvertegenwoordigers straks kunnen stellen.

De World Social Forum is weer afgelopen. Common Dreams bericht: 'World Social Forum: It All Boils Down to Politics. CARACAS -"As Aristotle said, everything is politics," Brazilian presidential secretary Luiz Dulci stated at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Venezuela, referring to the debate on the politicisation of the global civil society gathering. The discussion of whether the WSF should remain a space for mere reflection and protest or should begin to design campaigns for concrete action began at the fifth edition of the annual gathering, held in its birthplace: the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called on the Assembly of Social Movements, a coalition of 300 organisations and networks that is active within the framework of the WSF, to "draw up strategies of power in an offensive to build a better world." Earlier, in a rally organised by the global Vía Campesina network, Chávez had stated that he hoped that the WSF would not become simply a forum for "revolutionary tourism."' Lees verder: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0201-03.htm

Hier wordt Cindy Sheehan, moeder van een soldaat die in Irak om het leven kwam, op een hardhandige wijze afgevoerd uit de omgeving waar president Bush zijn 'troonrede' zou uitspreken, omdat zij een T-shirt droeg met de tekst: '2245 Dead. How many More?' Na haar aanhouding zei ze tegen de dienstdoende agent dat haar zoon in Irak was gestorven: 'That's when the enormity of my loss hit me. I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain. What did Casey die for? What did the 2244 other brave young Americans die for? What are tens of thousands of them over there in harm's way for still? For this? I can't even wear a shirt that has the number of troops on it that George Bush and his arrogant and ignorant policies are responsible for killing.' Lees verder:http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0201-01.htm

Gisteravond was ik in Rotterdam bij de uitreiking van de Amnesty International-Doen Award 2006. De documentaire 'Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes' van Avi Mograbi, een Israelische filmmaker en vredesactivist, was de winnaar van deze prestigieuze prijs. Zijn documentaire is een schitterend maar keihard verslag van de dagelijkse terreur van het Israelisch militair optreden in Palestijns gebied. Door middel van de Israelische verheerlijking van de mythe van Massada, waarbij joodse extremisten collectieve zelfmoord verkozen boven onderwerping aan de Romeinen en de verheerlijking van het verhaal van Samson die zelfmoord pleegde om zijn vijanden mee de dood in te nemen laat Mograbi zien wat de motieven zijn van Palestijnen die een zelfmoordaanslag plegen. Toen deze documentaire in Cannes werd vertoond was dit de begeleidende tekst: 'From the myths of Samson and Massada, the younger Israeli generations learn that death is preferable to domination.Today, as the second Intifada is raging, the Palestinians are constantly humiliated by the Israeli army and peasants are kept from ploughing their fields, children on their way back from school are stranded at checkpoints for hours, an old woman can't even go back home. Exhausted, these people voice their anger and despair just as the Jews did with the Romans or Samson with the Philistines. Israeli filmmaker Avi Mograbi still believes in the power of dialogue, with besieged Palestinians, and with omnipresent Israeli army officials. Samson called to the Lord and said: "Lord, God, remember me and strengthen me, only this once. So that I may avenge but one of my two eyes, avenge upon the Philistines. What does he ask for? Who does he turn to, and what does he ask for?-Samson turns to God and asks him to give him strength, even though he's not a Nazirite anymore, he asks him to make him strong one more time, so he can take revenge on the Philistines. Presented out of competition, the documentary Avenge But One of My Two Eyes by Avi Mograbi, who has come to Cannes for the first time, plunges us into the thick of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With the second intifada raging and the Palestinians in greater frustration and despair than ever, Mograbi places his faith in the power of dialogue, with the Palestinians besieged and the Israeli army everywhere. To sustain his argument, the director raises the legends of Samson & Delilah and Massada, which taught early Zionists that death is preferable to surrender. This film was born of Avi Mograbi's intention to reconsider the story of Masada, the fortress emblematic of the Jewish Zealots' uprising against Roman occupation in the 1st century AD, in a new light, by transposing the action to today's breaking news stories. Mograbi explains: "You have to be aware that we Israelis have always been brought up so as to regard Zealots as heroes and freedom fighters that we should identify with... But historian Josephus Flavius in the book 'The War of the Jews' told an altogether different story: the Zealots of Masada are described as murderers, robbers, bandits and extreme nationalists - and definitely not as people to look up to. So I thought it was important to retell the story of Masada. Besides, the fact that the Zealots committed suicide also reflected on today's Palestinian suicide bombers."' Toen ik zijn documentaire gezien had realiseerde ik me opnieuw hoe onrechtvaardig het is dat de Europese Unie nu dreigt het hele Palestijnse volk te straffen omdat men in hun wanhoop massaal op Hamas heeft gestemd. En dat terwijl de Israelische tereur door het Westen niet gestraft wordt, maar beloond wordt met speciale economische voordelen.

Common Dreams heeft een bericht overgenomen van het persagentschap Inter Press Service: 'Remaking USAID for a Permanent War on Terror? OAKLAND, California - In a series of developments -- some more publicized than others -- the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has been undergoing a transformation that will more closely align its activities with the State Department and the Pentagon. These changes could threaten the agency's original emphasis of concentrating on long-term social and economic assistance projects, and steer it toward greater involvement in more immediate political and military concerns, such as Pres. George W. Bush's war on terror. On Jan. 18, the Bush administration nominated Randall Tobias to serve both as the nation's first director of foreign assistance and as the head of USAID, the principal government agency that administers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. The new position at the State Department will oversee all U.S. foreign aid programs. (Tobias is slated to replace Andrew Natsios, the former head of USAID who recently resigned for a teaching post at Georgetown University.)' Lees verder: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0128-03.htmDit is inderdaad 1 van de centrale vragen: wordt de oorlogsvoering betaalt door ontwikkelingshulp? Die vraag geldt ook voor Nederland. Weet u bijvoorbeeld hoeveel het militair avontuur in Afghanistan gaat kosten en waar dat geld ineens vandaan komt? Waarom is hierover niet uitgebreid en stelselmatig bericht door onze immer wakkere commercile massamedia?

Na zoveel jaren geweld van de Bush-regering is de vraag wat 's werelds machtigste organisatie van plan is de komende tijd te gaan doen. Tom Engelhardt schrijft aan de vooravond van de presidentiele troonrede: 'The State of Disunion. Gorilla Empire? This Tuesday, the presidential State of the Union Address rolls around yet again. Only four Januaries have passed since the President used a State of the Union Address to brand Iran, Iraq, and North Korea -- the first two then bitter enemies, the third completely unrelated to either of them and on the other side of the planet -- as a World-War-II-style "axis of evil." It was the first great State of Disunion deception of the Bush administration's regal reign or error. Only three Januaries ago came the second. The President stood before Congress and pronounced those sixteen little words on his bum's rush to war with Iraq: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." How time flies. Now, thanks to the decision to terrify and manipulate Congress and the American people into this administration's much desired, unprovoked invasion of Iraq (and everything that followed from it), almost two-thirds of that "axis of evil" -- Iran and southern Iraq as well as the newly elected government in Baghdad's Green Zone -- have become something like an "axis" of two democratically elected, theocratic Shiite powers; while the third member of that putative axis is now a genuine, no-holds-barred nuclear "axis" of one. In the meantime, those sixteen words morphed into another kind of administration catastrophe -- the Joseph Wilson op-ed on Saddam's missing Niger uranium; the conspiracy inside the administration to smear Wilson; the outing of his CIA agent/wife, Valerie Plame; the coming into being of the Plame case; and the appointment of a dogged prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, as Special Couns! el to investigate an administration which prided itself on controlling everything in its path but couldn't, in the end, control the career officials in the Justice Department who managed to make the appointment. Now, sixteen words, so many secret meetings, leaks, smears, lies, obfuscations, obstructions, baroque press briefings, and plots later, Fitzgerald works doggedly in the wings, the bureaucracy's avenging angel in its war with this administration. Having lopped off the Vice President's good right arm, I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Fitzgerald seems to be preparing to take out the President's "brain," Karl Rove and then check the landscape for other candidates. Now, here we are, at the President's fifth State of the Union Address. Last year, of course, he brought forward his -- lucky for us all -- DOA social security overhaul. "Fixing" social security was what he called it, but putting in the fix on that classic safety-net program might better have caught the spirit of the moment -- or, if you want to get the full picture, just imagine the hurricane Katrina rescue effort applied to the world of retirement. This year, Richard W. Stevenson of the New York Times writes, the President will focus on health care (hold your hats), spending restraint (every speech needs a laugh line), illegal immigration, and "the nation's international economic competitiveness" (okay, two laugh lines).' Lees verder: http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=54078

De reden dat de NAVO nu de oorlog in het Midden Oosten zal moeten overnemen is dat de Verenigde Staten economisch en militair failliet is.Yahoo News bericht: 'Study: Army Stretched to Breaking Point. WASHINGTON - Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon. Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon's decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended. As evidence, Krepinevich points to the Army's 2005 recruiting slump — missing its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 — and its decision to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives. "You really begin to wonder just how much stress and strain there is on the Army, how much longer it can continue," he said in an interview. He added that the Army is still a highly effective fighting force and is implementing a plan that will expand the number of combat brigades available for rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.The 136-page report represents a more sobering picture of the Army's condition than military officials offer in public. While not released publicly, a copy of the report was provided in response to an Associated Press inquiry.' Lees verder: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060124/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_breaking_point Of:http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012506A.shtml

Al Jazeera bericht: 'Iran to fire missiles if attacked Iran will launch medium-range missiles if attacked, a military leader said, accusing Britain and the United States of arming rebels as international pressure mounts on Tehran over its nuclear plans. Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard, told state television on Saturday: "If we come under a military attack, we will respond with our very effective missile defence." Western states suspect Iran of secretly aiming to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its nuclear facilities are intended to produce only electricity. The United States and Israel have said they will prefer to solve the stand-off through diplomacy but have not ruled out a military strike. Military experts reckon the Revolutionary Guard's Shahab-3 missiles have a range of 2000km, meaning Israel, US bases in the Gulf and foreign troops in Iraq lie within their range.' Lees verder: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/883BC2D7-C21B-4F93-96E6-2EE162FD2B8E.htm

Weer een getraumatiseerde generatie die een oorlog voor de rijken uitvocht. 'When you are used up, where do you go soldier?' zingt Robert Cray. De video-opname van deze song kunt u hier bekijken: http://afsc.org/iraq/cray/video-wmv.htmOndertussen bericht Yahoo News: 'Iraq war leaves mental scars for civilians, US troops alike. Iraq war is reaping a fierce psychological toll, exposing a mental health crisis inside Iraq, and searing hundreds of thousands of US troops with combat trauma, experts warned… a wide variety of ailments can be expected in a nation stifled by decades of tyranny, foreign occupation and three years of post-Saddam violence."It is a very easy for a lot of people to lose hope with ongoing violence and ongoing intimidation. Iraqi citizens were also devalued and targeted by the Iraqi regime," said Dr Husam Alathari, medical director of the INOVA Center for Addiction Treatment Services and a consultant to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. US soldiers returning home from tours in Iraq, meanwhile are initially showing a higher incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than in other American conflicts. Around 317,000 veterans who received a primary or secondary diagnosis of PTSD were treated at medical centers run by the US Department of Veterans Affairs in 2005.Around a third have had a subsequent diagnosis of a mental health disorder, said Dr Antonette Zeiss, the department's Deputy Chief Consultant for Mental Health. "It is higher than initial rates in previous wars," said Zeiss, adding that part of the rise may be due to a vigorous effort by the department to find out what help veterans' need. There are more women veterans from the Iraq war -- around 13 percent -- than in other conflicts, reflecting the need for more research into PTSD. Veterans are also typically older, with many from reserve and National Guard units, rather than the young, conscript soldiers in their teens and early 20s who fought the Vietnam War. Many veterans, who would have died from their wounds in earlier conflicts, survived through speedy access to medical treatment -- but are coming home maimed in body and mind, prompting new mental disorders, Zeiss said.' Lees verder:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060127/hl_afp/usiraqwarhealth_060127192100Zie voor verzet tegen de oorlog ook: http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000354.php

De expansionistische politiek van de democratische staat Israel en de terreur van de bezetting hebben Hamas aan de macht gebracht. Zo werkt een democratie. De ene democratie sanctioneert het veroveren van andermans land, de andere democratie verzet zich daar tegen, uiteindelijk met wapens. Dat is allemaal niet wonderlijk. Het enige wonderlijke is dat Westerse opiniemakers zich daarover verwonderen. Maar dit terzijde. De vraag is: hoe nu verder? Information Clearing House heeft een artikel uit de Independent van Robert Fisk overgenomen. De Midden-Oosten correspondent schrijft: 'The problem with democracy. And now, horror of horrors, the Palestinians have elected the wrong party to power. -- -- Oh no, not more democracy again! Didn't we award this to those Algerians in 1990? And didn't they reward us with that nice gift of an Islamist government - and then they so benevolently cancelled the second round of elections? Thank goodness for that!True, the Afghans elected a round of representatives, albeit that they included some warlords and murderers. But then the Iraqis last year elected the Dawa party to power in Baghdad, which was responsible - let us not speak this in Washington - for most of the kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, the car bombing of the (late) Emir and the US and French embassies in Kuwait.And now, horror of horrors, the Palestinians have elected the wrong party to power. They were supposed to have given their support to the friendly, pro-Western, corrupt, absolutely pro-American Fatah, which had promised to "control" them, rather than to Hamas, which said they would represent them. And, bingo, they have chosen the wrong party again.Result: 76 out of 132 seats. That just about does it. God damn that democracy. What are we to do with people who don't vote the way they should?' Lees verder:http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11694.htm

NewsMax. Com bericht: 'Economist Magazine Warns 'Danger Time' for U.S. This week's edition of The Economist magazine offers an ominous warning for the U.S economy. "Danger Time for America" - the respected global weekly magazine states, depicting a cover drawing of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan passing a stick of dynamite labeled the "The Economy." The Economist is not given to alarmist warnings. But the magazine believes the U.S. economy is in for a rocky road beginning this year, and challenges economic optimists' recent sunny predictions regarding the U.S. financial picture. The Economist report mirrors the analysis that has been offered by the Financial Intelligence Report, a publication of NewsMax and MoneyNews. The FIR has been warning investors for some time of the potential economic chaos that Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan is about to drop on the American economy.' Zie: http://www.newsmax.com/adv/economist/